𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙣 - 𝙝.𝙥. ⚯͛

𝐢𝐢 - 𝖻𝖾𝖼𝗈𝗆𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖺 𝗀𝗋𝗒𝖿𝖿𝗂𝗇𝖽𝗈𝗋

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

╰┈➤ Elsie's POV 

Stepping into the Great Hall for the first time was amazing— Elsie had never seen a castle quite like Hogwarts before, and her eyes darted all around the highly decorated hall. An enchanted ceiling reflected the orange evening sky, and hundreds of floating candles lit up the room. Large glittering banners were hanging all around the room, each one representing a different Hogwarts House.

Elsie was a bit surprised, yet excited when the sorting hat had placed her in Gryffindor. Neither of her parents attended Hogwarts as children so she had no expectations as to what house she would be placed in.

Once the glorious feast in the Great Hall was finished, Elsie and Margo Moreau, the only other student from Lune Claire who was placed in Gryffindor House, followed some of the other Gryffindor students through the Great Hall, up several sets of moving staircases, and through a portrait in the wall which led to the Gryffindor common room. The room was dark but cozy; a fireplace sat on one end of the room with a large red sofa and three large red armchairs placed in front.

Clusters of students were hanging out and chatting; a group of older students was playing Wizard Skittles in the center of the room and others sat at round tables working on their assignments.

Elsie sat alone in the common room for a while; Margo had decided to go up and look for her dormitory. She sat in a quiet corner by a huge window overlooking the castle grounds. The sky outside was a deep velvet blue; Elsie watched as the trees nearest the window swayed gently in the breeze, their branches reaching up toward the endless blue sky. After a moment of gazing out the window, she took to observing the other students in the common room and wondering what her time at Hogwarts was going to be like.

As night drew nearer, Elsie decided she should head up to the girls' dormitories in search of her room. She pulled out the schedule that Professor McGonagall had given her earlier and looked at it. There are so many rooms, Elsie thought. She looked around the common room and walked up to a boy with bright red hair who wore a Prefect badge on his robe; surely he could help her find her dormitory.

"I'm Percy Weasley— Prefect," said the boy with curly red hair. He shook Elsie's hand firmly.

He had a pale, serious face that was covered in freckles, and he spoke hastily as if he had someplace important to be.

"The girls' dormitories are there on the right— boys' on the left. The dormitory number on your paper there matches the number on the door— should be easy enough to find."

"Thank you," said Elsie, looking back at the paper in her hand.

"Oh, and where do I find my luggage?" Elsie called out to Percy, who had already started to walk away.

"Your luggage has surely already been brought up to your room," said Percy hastily.

"Oh, okay," said Elsie as Percy hurried out of the common room.

Elsie walked up the spiral staircase, passing a few girls who rushed down the stairs and into the common room. She looked at the paper in her hands; "Room Number 5," she muttered under her breath as she wandered down a long, narrow hallway.

The hallway was quiet and dark; the only light came from candles that floated several feet above Elsie's head. There was a long red carpet spread along the hallway, and several moving portraits hung up on the stone walls. She stopped in front of a wooden door and read the sign above the doorway: Room Number 5.

Elsie pushed the door open and walked in. To her surprise, there was no one inside. Five four-poster beds with red curtains were scattered about the room with a footrest at the end of each bed. Her trunk and owl cage had been placed on the foot of a bed in the corner of the room.

She lifted the latch and let her spotted owl, Artemis (Artie for short) out of her cage; she nipped at her fingers kindly before zooming around the room, twittering excitedly.

Elsie laughed. "Well Artie, looks like this is going to be our new home."

Elsie took off her robes and changed into her warm pajamas. She sat cross-legged on her new bed and looked at a small brown package that she had taken out of her trunk. Carefully, she untied the black ribbon and set it aside. She spread several faded photographs out on her comforter and picked one up, examining it under the candlelight. In the photograph was a woman with wavy, honey-brown hair and large brown eyes; next to the woman was a little girl who looked just like her, except with freckles. Elsie ran her finger over a crease in the photograph and then set it back down on the comforter. The same woman and young girl were in at least a dozen of the other square photographs, some of which also included a man with dirty-blond hair, blue eyes, and freckles.

Elsie had been staring at the photographs on her bed for about a quarter of an hour when the door to the dormitory suddenly flew open. Artie freaked out at the sudden noise and zoomed around the room, causing the girls who stood in the doorway to duck down.

Elsie quickly scooted the photographs underneath her pillow as two girls walked into the room, looking at her with curious eyes.

"Sorry about that!" said Elsie. "This is Artie," she said, gesturing to the spotted brown owl who had landed on her shoulder. "She gets excited pretty easily."

The girl with puffy brown hair spoke first; there was a book tucked under her arm and she stared at Elsie with interest as she walked over to her own four-poster bed.

"You're one of the new transfer students!" said the girl cheerfully. "Elisabeth, right?"

Elsie nodded. "Please, call me Elsie."

The girl smiled. "I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Parvati Patil."

Parvati smiled at Elsie. "Hello."

She had brown skin and her long, dark hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail. She wore the same red and gold scarf that Hermione wore around her neck.

"Nice to meet you both," said Elsie, smiling.

Parvati walked over to her bed and grabbed some pajamas, then went into the bathroom, leaving Hermione and Elsie alone in the dormitory.

"I was wondering," said Elsie, as Hermione walked toward her. "Do you know where I can find Classroom 3C?"

Elsie opened up the map of Hogwarts Professor McGonagall had given her and looked at it with a puzzled expression. "That's where my first class is tomorrow and I have no idea where it is."

"That's the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom," said Hermione. "That's my first class of the day as well— I can show you tomorrow morning. Can I see your schedule?"

"Of course," said Elsie, handing her the yellow parchment.

"It looks like we will have a few classes together, including Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Lupin. You can sit with me at breakfast if you'd like and then we can walk to class together. I can show you where the rest of the classrooms are after."

Elsie smiled, thankful for the girl's generosity. "I'd love that. Thank you, Hermione."

If you enjoyed the chapter, drop a vote!